Lukewarm Jesse
by CasualCache
Summary: It's an average day at the student radio, but what happens if Jesse and Luke come closer. Written from Jesse's and Beca's point-of-view. BoyLove, future content might require M rating. Not a oneshot. Pairing: JESSExLUKE.
1. Chapter 1

How this came to be:  
Watched Pitch Perfect. Spend the night on the internet. Found no JESSExLUKE FanFiction. Made it my mission to change that. Period.

I hope you like it. If you do, leave a review!

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Jesse prepared for his regular shift at the radio. Beca wouldn't be joining him today, unfortunately she was off practicing with the Bellas. He headed into the "Radio Loft", a term he coined for the radio station because of its huge industrial windows and the glass-paned, steampunk style of Luke's "office". He was dressed in only a t-shirt and shorts because it was a hot day and the Radio Station tended to be quite a Greenhouse, especially in summer.  
He entered the WBUJ building, shortly stopping to get used to the hot, dusty air smelling mostly of cardboard from the disc cases. As no one ran a vacuum through the building and the windows could not be opened, he could see specks of dust shimmering, illuminated by the light that was cast through the window right below the ceiling. He walked along the shelves full of discs, cables, and other music-related ephemera towards the opposite side of the storage.

Approaching Luke's office, he slumped his backpack onto one of the desks, grinning slyly while remembering Luke's words about "being burned before"...

He liked Luke. Not in the cuddly, _(read in high pitch) _"I want to be with you forever" way, but he simply enjoyed his company, another reason to spend time here besides hanging out with Beca or earning some badly needed money.

Luke wore a grey speckled t-shirt and a pair of blue-jeans. His ink was showing on his smooth skin, the biceps below pushing his tendons visibility when moving below the lightest dusting of hair. He was sitting in front of his mixer consoles, headphones on, playing something hat sounded distinctly like a mix only Beca could have made.

She, still wanting to fulfill her DJ-dream decided to continue performing as head of the Bellas, while pursuing her own musical carrier. She, with and without the Bellas, is now an international star of the musical world, and she was traveling a lot. She had even composed music for a movie, making that the second one she watched from beginning to end without falling asleep. Anyway, the amount of traveling was strain on their relationship, and because neither she or hm were in the mood for long-distance stuff they decided to break it off.

Luke noticed Jesse standing outside the mixing room, put down his headphones and greeted him through the framed glass. At that point Jesse noticed he was staring at Luke.

"Hi. You know what you got to do. The discs are back there, and when you're done, I have something I want to tell you."

Jesse walked down the aisle to the box of discs and started stacking them while Luke went back to his desk. He liked looking at their covers and reminiscing about the singer and the time the album was published. He knew a lot of the songs, but not all of them so he mentally noted down the ones he might be interested in for later listening.

There were only a few discs in the plastic box, so Jesse was done quite quickly. He went back to ask Luke what he wanted to talk about. Luke got up and gestured Jesse to join him inside the mixing room. Jesse quickly obliged.

"I've got a call from a friend of mine. He needs someone to compose some music for a indepent production on campus.".

"Awesome!" Jesse said.

Then in a sudden burst of something he couldn't quite put his finger on, he asked:

"Can we meet up for a coffee our something and talk about that?"

"Sure. But you're not trying to make a date or something."

Jesse wanted to negate, but a little voice in his head thought it was smart to talk back right there and then.

"Well perhaps..." the voice started, when Jesse became aware that he stood in front of Luke, staring blankly onto the wall behind him.

"Noooo way!"

"Okay, then let's meet tomorrow at the Campus Café."

"All right." Jesse replied, picking up his backpack and silently cursing his brain, while walking back out of the radio to get some rest on the sunny yard.


	2. Chapter 2

The campus café (cc for short) is know around town for serving the best coffee this side of the Atlantic. For some students it's simply a way to earn some extra money, some go there to socialize (in fact the department social sciences put up cameras here to study the social dynamics of college students), but most peyote come here to enjoy a hot beverage and study/reminisce/write/compose etc. The café floor is lined with black tiles, which reach up into the lower third of the walls. The top two thirds are painted beige. Dark brown leather benches are attached to the walls of the café. Across from stand them brown wood chairs with beige leather upholstery, with a black marbled stone table in the middle. The top surface of the bar standing in the middle of the café is made from the same polished stone, and the bar itself is black plastic. The front-facing wall of the café is a glass pane, opening the view out onto the university courtyard.

Jesse opened the glass door, entered the cc, and sat down in the front of the restaurant. He was a few minutes to early and craned his neck to look for Luke every few minutes.

Luke was fashionably late. He joined Jesse at the table.

"Hi. So you wanted to talk about the movie."

"Right."

"The movie is a student documentary about"...

Luke's voice faded out of Jesse's sense of hearing as he basically just stared at Luke. Not listening, but more like half-marveling at Luke's features and being lost in his brown eyes, and half simply gawking.

"Hey!"

Jesse jumped. He silently cursed himself, again. Why must his brain turn into mush every time he is close to Luke?

"Sorry! What were you saying?"

"Are you sure you want to talk about the movie?"

"Yes, of course, yeah–"

Luke interrupted Jesse's very unconvincing mumbling.

"Know what? Cut the crap."

Luke grabbed the back of Jesse's head and pushed it towards his own. He slightly parted his, gently pushing them onto Jesse's.

The room fell completely silent. They could feel the eyes of everyone within sight resting on them, but Jesse didn't care. He felt like he was strapped onto a firecracker and shot into seventh heaven. He slightly parted his lips to, joining Luke in the soft kiss. He rested his hand below Luke's ear, softly cradling Luke's neck. The tips of their tongues touched, and with every second his heart skipped a beat. Luke's smooth lips made Jesse wish this kiss would last forever.

Into the kiss, Jesse mumbled "Thank you.".

Luke responded, uttering a low "No problem.".

They carried on the entire room keeping silent. So silent that Jesse thought he could hear his heartbeat, feeling Luke's on his neck. Jesse lost notice of everything around them, his consciousness slowly becoming lost in Luke's deep brown eyes...


	3. Intermezzo

**Intermezzo**

** The Konserthus, Stockholm, Sweden**  
** 19:00 CEST, The same day**

Beca was sitting in her prep room, having just gotten away from all the makeup artists, managers. She was about to perform "Titanium" together with David Guetta and the Bellas. She enjoyed being on tour, but it was a major hassle. She still hadn't quite moved on from breaking it off with Jesse, and found her self watching "Breakfast Club" alone too often than she would even care to admit.

Her MacBook notified her that she had a new mail. She opened it, thankful for the prospect of at least a little distraction. It read:

From: Benjamin Applebaum  
To: Beca Mitchell  
Subject: Interesting Footage  
Attached: Movie File (cc_CCTV)

Hi Beca,

I have some interesting CCTV footage from the campus café for you. Enjoy! :P

Kind Regards,  
Benji

Beca downloaded the attached .mov file. It was an open secret of Barden that the Social Science CCTV cameras were not only used for academics, and this was not the first mail she received containing such footage.

She opened the video clip, expecting some kind of comedic scene. The footage showed a wide-angle shot of the café. She noticed Jesse was sitting across from Luke. She thought they were probably talking about the radio, she thought. Then, all of a sudden, Luke grabbed Jesse's head and started kissing him passionately. Jesse obviously didn't mind, he seemed to enjoy it.

Beca was speechless. Her mind had been blown out of order and she was unsure if she should cry or scream.

Someone knocked on the door. Beca could tell it was Chloe when get voice sounded through the door.

"Are you coming Beca?" Chloe asked.

"I'll be out in a second!" Beca answered, a break in her voice almost cutting her off.

"Are you ok?" Chloe worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Beca responded once more, not being sure to whom she lied more, Chloe or herself.


	4. Chapter 3

The last days were a hassle for Jesse. Between aca-practice, lectures and other coursework he hardly found time to relax. He wasnʼt sure if that was for the better or not, because he couldnʼt spend time outside of his dorm for longer than approximately three minutes before getting the stares from a great deal of the campus population. The story of Luke and him spread like wildfire. Those who didnʼt witness it in person heard about it from their dormmates/coursemates/social media. Benji had even told him that even the CCTVʼs had recorded the entire thing. He had confessed to have shared the footage with one person, which he promised to be trustworth (even though not wanting to name him or her), before he had deleted it, possibly sparing Jesse and Luke a lot.

But it was not only for the worse. Many others had promised to support him, too. They said it was absolutely okay, and that they didnʼt understand the hatred and negativity of the others. Some even went so far to play (or, in some cases, even perform) the 2012 ICCA semi-finals song of the "Sockapellas" whenever Jesse was outside and stared at or got cat-called by some jerks. Luckily for Jesse, the Trebels belonged to those people.

Speaking of them, it was Trebelmaker practice. They were training a lot recently on the account of the upcoming ICCA Regionals. They had tried various arrangements for about two hours and had finally found one they are happy with.

"All right, Iʼm calling it for today. " Jesse exclaimed, a bit exhausted because he had been singing the same couple of songs in multiple different arrangements over and over again.

Hat, one of the Trebels, came up to him.

"Have you heard that the Bellaʼs are performing a concert here and are challenging every a capella group interested to a riff-off? "

"No, wait, what? When? "

"In about two weeks. "

"Okay. .. Thanks Hat. Iʼll take care of that. "

"Good. See you soon. "

"You too. .. "

Jesse was a bit dumbfounded. A riff-off? In two weeks? Against the Bellas? He wondered why Beca wouldnʼt have at least texted him. They were still friends after all.

He decided that it would be best not to dwell on the topic of Beca for too long, especially because he had to get to WBUJ.

He got going, grabbing a quick lunch on the way there.

Luke was sitting at the mixer consoles, as usual. When he heard the studio door open and shut he looked up, noticing Jesse. He took off his headphone.

"Hi! Discs are back there. You know what to do. "

Jesse greeted Luke as well and got to work. Despite his greatest efforts to think of something else, Beca popped back into Jesseʼs mind all the time, and the increasingly boredom-inducing monotony of stacking disc after disc wasnʼt helping whatsoever.

"Jesse! "

Jesse whirled around at Lukeʼs exclamation, making him tumble out of his mental state of trying to remember the title of every single disc to avoid thinking about Beca.

"Would you mind fetching me lunch? "

"No I wouldnʼt. Burgers as usual? "  
Jesse asked with a slight, though quite clearly audible sarcastic undertone.

Luke lifted up his shirt, showing off his abs, like he had done before. "I think Iʼm still good, donʼt you? " He asked, letting a undertone sway in his voice Jesse could quite put his finger on, but at least stopped him thinking about Beca.

"Iʼm not sure. .. Would you mind if I checked myself? " Jesse responded, trying to make the deeper meaning as clear as possible.

"By all means. "

Jesse pulled Luke into a soft kiss, startling him ever so slightly. He toyed at the seam of Lukeʼs shirt, eventually pulling it over his head, Restarting the kiss, he pulled Luke closer, letting his hands ghost over the other mans back, chest and abs.  
He got a very positive (and, let's face it, very sexy) reaction from Luke, who couldn't hide his rising breathrate particularly well. Jesse left Luke's lips, but didn't stop kissing. He drew a trail of kisses down to Luke's pecs, swaying over to one nipple and gently swirled around it with his tongue. He could hear Luke sucking in air through his teeth, while being awestruck of how well Jesse was doing even though he probably never did this before. Jesse continued downward, slowly but surely. He traced Luke's sixpack with his tongue, kissing every pack on the way down one by one.

He reached the border of Lukeʼs jeans, whoʼs heart was pounding like a bass, when he was pulled up back into the liplock with Luke. Luke, being incapacitated of properly speaking, uttered:  
"Maybe - we should - continue - later -really - starving - right now."

Jesse broke up the kiss and said:  
"Sure, just wait here." before he walked off, leaving behind a shirtless, dumbfounded, beet-red, but very aroused Luke.

For more Informations about the 2012 Socapellas ICCA Song, visit:

dft. ba / -fyou_sock (Without the spaces)

If you liked my first, feeble attemt at some smutty goodness, please leave a review. Otherwise tell be what I did wrong be leaving a review as well; P!

*Gives out cookies*

Bye!


	5. Breather Part 1 - Press Reception

**From the college newspaper "The Barden Times":**

All you aca-girls out there, I'm here to break your heart. Jesse Swanson, lead singer of the Trebelmakers and two time winner of the "Cutest Boy of Barden" award, is off the single market. He seems to have gotten over his break-up with a capella superstar Beca Mitchell, as he was sighted locking lips with WBUJ's DJ, Luke. The kiss sparked a great disagreement inside the college population, effectively splitting it into two camps. The one camp arguing that what they did was a public indecency, while the other (far more fabulous and musically talented) camp is backing the two lovebirds where ever they can with quite extraordinary methods.

As for the staff, resident philosophy professor Dr. Mitchell said:

"We will in no circumstances allow, tolerate or in any other way endorse hatred, harassment or discrimination towards the LGBT community."

This has caused more controversy than anyone would have thought, and we are looking forward on keeping you covered on how these events unfold.

By Mary Elise

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Hi again! This is the first part of a two-part breather series to be uploaded while I write the last few chapters, as they might take a while to be done. And while I know that this is short, part two will be longer (≈ 500 words) and quite musical. Hint, hint: it has something to do with a big city on the west coast with a rather famous airport ;).

As always, review if you liked it and by the way, 6 REVIEWS and 4 FOLLOWERS! Thats crazy/awesome, at least for me! Thank you so much!


	6. Breather Part 2 - Flashmob at LAX

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the song Party in the USA, nor do I, even though I should have mentioned this like five chapters ago, own the motion picture Pitch Perfect. (Although I'd love to...)

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**LAX, California**

**11: 23, approximately one and a half weeks later**

It was the last stop on the tour before the final at Barden, and Beca still spent way to much time thinking about Jesse.

She waddled out of her airplane seat in to the aisle which could easily be likened to a clogged vein. She took her DJ-Case from the overhead compartment and squeeze between two other passengers. Beca craned her head, searching for the other Bellas. Fat Amy, Cynthia Rose, Stacie and Aubrey were on the other side of the middle row of seats. Chloe was right in front of her, so Ashley, Jessica and Denise had to be right behind her.

They walked down the jetway to the long, dreaded line at the TSA. This was why Beca did not like international flying. She took out get headphones and started listening some music to distract herself from the gnawing feeling that seemed to get worse the closer she got to Barden. Luckily, the TSA check were rather short, but still long enough to drain her iPod battery of itʼs power, leaving Beca with no possibility to listen to music as she waited for her luggage.

Then, all of a sudden, a familiar melody started playing in the back of her head and she started to quietly sing along.

"I hopped of the plane at LAX, with a dream and my cardigan"

The other Bellas noticed her singing, some of them humming along.

"Welcome to the land of fame, excess. Am I gonna fit in? "

The Bellas started to sing along, gradually becoming louder.

"I hopped in a cab, here I am for the first time, look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign. "

People started to take notice of the impromptu singing performance.

"This is all so crazy, everybody seems so famous.

My tummyʼs turninʼ and Iʼm feeling kindaʼ homesick, too much pressure and Iʼm nervous. "

People around them gradually started to join in, while more and more people became aware of what was happening.

"Thatʼs when the taxi man turned on the radio and the Jay-Z song was on, and the Jay-Z song was on, and the Jay-Z song was on. "

There was a short break, and on the next line, the crowd erupted with sound, many were singing, some were dancing. Beca was so overwhelmed that she almost forgot to continue singing.

"So I put my hands up, theyʼre playinʼ my song and the butterflies fly away.

Iʼm noddinʼ my head like yeah!

Movinʼ my hips like yeah! "

At this point there was so much commotion that the airport administration very unsuccessfully tried to stop the very spontaneous flashmob.

"And got my hands up, theyʼre playinʼ my song, now everythingʼs gonna be okay.

Yeah, itʼs a party in the USA!

Yeah, itʼs a party in the USA! "

All of a sudden the music stopped, and everyone acted like nothing had happened. Beca picked up her luggage and left the airport with the other Bellas, finally having something else to think about than Jesse for the first time in a long while.


	7. Chapter 4

Jesse grew increasingly tired with every minute he spent studying. The Trebelmakers double schedule of training for the ICCA and the Riff-Off had forced Jesseʼs farther into the night than was good for him. It was almost 1 am, and he had to be awake early the next morning, so he cursed his stacks of folders and books and called it a day (or, for that matter, a night). He snuck into bed, trying not to wake up Benji, who was already fast asleep for hours.

He feel asleep in an instant, not to wake up until the alarm clock rang him out of his dreams.

He mumbled something that sounded remotely like "Good Morning", and got ready for his first lecture. Two more followed, and after a brief stop at the cc to get some lunch, he went down to the Radio Loft for the first time in a week.

Luke, as always, was sitting at the mixing consoles. He noticed Jesse entering the Storage and looked up. He smiled that way that made Jesseʼs heart skip a beat. Jesse spoke up, ensuring that Luke could hear him across the storage.

"Iʼve got a plus-one ticket for the Bella concert tonight! Would you like to join me? "

"ʼCourse. I just have to make sure someone is here then. "

"Cool, so letʼs meet at seven in front of the Assembly Hall?"

"Sure. See you then. "

"Are you okay, youʼre not very soaring with words? "

"Yeah, Iʼm fine, but you havenʼt been here for for to long. " Luke said, faux-pouting as he did.

"Oh man, Iʼm so sorry, I had so much to do, the ICCAs, the coursework, can I make it up somehow? "

"I think you just might. .. " Luke said slyly, making his intention quite clear.

Jesse, getting the hint, took a step towards Luke and pulled him close, almost making him fall over. He joined lips with his lover, enjoying every moment of closeness he shared with him, and made a mental note of never not visiting the radio for so long.

He felt Luke grasp his hip, pulling him even closer into the tight embrace. Jesse laid his arms around Luke, literally feeling the others heartbeat against his.

They slowly broke the kiss, breathing heavily.

"So. .. tonight at the Assembly Center? "

"You can bet on that. "

With a goodbye on his lips, Jesse walked out of the Radio. He wandered over to his dorm, picking up a copy of the Barden Times to read later.

Reaching his dorm, he decided to watch Breakfast Club once more to kill some time before he had to get ready. Benji was off somewhere, probably in one of the empty rooma of the performing arts and music department, practicing. Jesse made himself some tea and popcorn and laid down on his bed while switching on his MacBook and starting the movie.

*Jesse watches the Breakfast Club. After a while, Benji returns to the dorm. *

"Are you ready? The concert starts in an hour. " Benji asked, snapping Jesse, who had zoned out into the movie.

"Oh, right, damn! " Jesse said in a surprised voice, scrambling out bed and to his closet, hurriedly grabbing his Trebelmaker shirt and vest. He threw them on and asked Benji

"Are you coming now, or do you have to get ready? "

"No, Iʼm coming. "

Both guys hurried out of the dorm room. While Jesse locked the door behind him, his MacBook, which he had forgotten to turn off, notified the now empty room of a new email from Beca, while playing the ending of Breakfast Club.

* * *

Jesse arrived at the assembly hall, searching for Luke. He found him close to the entrance.

"Hi! " Jesse said, not really knowing what else to say.

"Hi. "

"So, letʼs go, shall we? "

And so they went. Jesse handed Luke his ticket, and they started moving through the croud to the middle of the ranks, where they had a good view at the stage.

They were quite early, so they started to chat. Not about anything important, but about the little things in life, like bickering about some nasty professors and talking about their article in the Barden Times. Those moments reminded Jesse of why he had fallen for Luke. His witty remarks, his cute British accent and his deep brown eyes made Jesse feel safe and warm.

The emcee introduced the Bellas and they entered the stage. The crowd went wild with sheer excitement, flying banners of the official Bellas fanclub, screaming and waving their hands as the Bellas entered the stage.

Beca whistled the pitchpipe and counted to three, as always. The Bellas started singing and everyone knew what they sang. They were singing the Mashup they sang at the 2012 ICCA finals, and the crowd went even more wild with excitement. Jesse too was excited, as he felt a strong deja-vu of the time he was at Lincon Center.

When the Bellas started to song "Donʼt you (forget about me)" Jesse turned to Luke and Luke turned to Jesse. Jesse uttered a low

"I love you. " and Luke responded:

"I love you too. "

They put their hands around each other and locked lips, smiling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw people turning around to look at them, some shocked, some astounded, some with their mobile phone cameras directed at them. He saw that the Beca stood on the stage motionless, and had stopped singing. He broke the kiss abruptly and turned to face the stage, where Beca was still standing, grasping her mic so hard that her knuckles turned white.

She ran of the stage, a horrible screeching sound indicating that she dropped the mic. Jesse shot out of his seat, trying to get through the tumultuous audience to the exit of the Assembly Center.

As soon as he was outdoors again, he took of running with only one goal in mind: find Beca.

* * *

Hi aca-nerds (no offense),

Sorry this took so long! I was in the process of planning, so this drowned a bit, but I hope you will still enjoy it though!

As always please Review/Share if you liked it!

With kind regards,

CasualCache. (Another thing that can be abbreviated to cc. )


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